TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Sunday, May 24, 2015

First of all I have to totally laugh at myself! Here I had spent a beautiful weekend last week at my favorite stamp store, bought a few new Christmas stamps and thought I was motivated enough to use one right away. After all I had 4 free days until I got together with my ladies group and I wanted to be sure I had a new Christmas card to show them and have all elements cut out for them to create one too. But...............noooooo..................I fall back on an easy easy card instead. After bringing all my treasure's to my craft room I started looking at a bunch of other stuff I already had. For instance and box just filled to capacity of Embossing folders. I do use them but not as often as I should and there are so many ways to make super quick cards using them. So instead of using one of my newer stamps I decided to try using more of what I already had. I chose this Nordic Sweater embossing folder I got last year. I think I got it on ebay. I also had this small roll of ribbon with words already on it and I almost never use ribbons like this even though I must have at least 20 different rolls of them. This card is the typical 4.24 x 5.5 the embossed area is white card 4 1/8" x 5 3/8"Add some ribbon and some bling!

The snowflake is one I cut from a med Sizzix die. I then sprayed with a spray adhesive and sprinkled glitter. I just thought the card needed a bit of glittering! I'm going to make a couple more easy cards using only and emboss folder and some embellies. I'll post those later.Hope everyone enjoys their Memorial Day weekend!! My heart goes out to all that have served in the Military and their families.Till later..................................HAPPY CARDING!!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

What a great weekend! We got our cabin open for the season and I can't wait to get back up there. We might even consider Internet service this year. Might? Any way I got to check out my favorite stamp store while we were there. First I went to the new and improved store. Oscar had moved from one building to another and has a much better set up in the new space. I am excited to spend alot of time in the new shop. The other shop Oscar has is her original one but about 20 miles from me. But it's a country road 20 miles so it really doesn't take too much time to get there considering there aren't any stoplights or stop signs. Oh....did I mention these stores are in Door County Wisc? No??? Sorry!! Yes, it's the "Door County Rubber Stamp Store". Oscar has 1 in Sturgeon Bay which is open nearly all year long. This is her original one where most of the magic happens. She has her own design line which is only found in Door County as far as I know. She also carries the largest line of "Northwoods Stamps" If it's a Northwoods stamp she has it or can get it. Her originals are totally awesome ranging from "Door County Kids" to "Angels" with lots in between. There is also a huge selection of word stamps that you won't see elsewhere. The second store is in Egg Harbor and a bit closer to me being only 9 miles away. This new store carries nearly as many stamps. Both stores offer other goodies such as inks, glitters, papers (Some pertaining directly to Door County) as well as very helpful staff. You can check out their facebook page HERENow for my goodies....I got quite a few stamps with some great ideas in my head. Here are the Northwoods collection I picked up this time:

I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to work on so I got some Christmas and some everyday. I then picked up a few Christmas stamps from Oscars line. So Stinkin' Cute!!

I also picked up 2 Dies. I'm such a sucker for dies since I hate "Fussy" cutting.

Those little birds will look great on a birch tree stamp I have!

I also need to pick up 2 stamps for my ladies. One was in "want" of the Easter baskets in a row from Northwoods and the other was in "want" of the Dogs howling at moon. What I thought was a stamp with 3 dogs ended up being a dog, a cat, a squirrel and a rabbit. Still cute though. Hope she still wants it LOL!

And Last but not least.........I was so excited when we returned home to find my 2 free tickets to the Scrapbook Expo in my mail box! I've never been and the ladies have been trying to get me to go for the last 2 years. Maybe this year will be the one. Well I need to get cutting....(pun intended). I need to come up with a card for Friday night with my ladies. Hmmmm..........Everyday? Christmas? Fall? Fathers Day? Not sure.......so check back later. Til then............................

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Making this short and sweet..............................getting ready to go open up our summer home on the lake and I am so excited because my one and only stamp store has just opened her 3rd store!!!! I can barley contain my self. She actually had 2 stores in our little county and the one closest to me was actually 50% stamp stuff and 50% kiddie toys. I'm in a huge tourist area know as the Cape Cod of the Mid-West. Any way the Kids store went great for her for a couple of years and recently a front building became available for sale and she bought it and transferred her stamping stuff out of the kids store. I can't wait to see what she has done with the new store. I also can't wait to see the new stamps she has designed!!! She also carries the entire line of Northwoods stamps so I want to check out the new summer line too! It's going to be a great weekend! I have no Internet up there so you'll have to wait til next week to see my treasures. Till then..........................HAPPY CARDING!!!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Hi everyone! I know my title sounds confusing. Whats not to like about a Z-fold card? They are super simple and can be dressed up or dressed down. After watching a YouTube video by Deb Valders on a Modified Z fold card, I decided to take her idea One step further. Well I'm not talking about the fold itself at all. I'm referring to papers! We all are drawn in to the special sales at the local craft stores of pattern card stock pads. You know the ones with like 48 sheets of different pattern, heavy paper in 12 x 12 sheets. Of course there are always a bunch of papers we don't even like but heck its a deal we can't pass up! LOL So lets turn these not so great papers into Z fold cards. Most of these papers are only printed on one side with the other being just white. You add solid card stock to the white side to coordinate with the pattern and your in business! Absolutely ANY of those papers will work. I am not a scrapbooker and I have never seen any real uses for those 12x12 sheets that were specifically made for a scrapbook layout. Similar to one like this one:

Now each sheet of pattern 12 x 12 cardstock will make 2 Z-fold cards. To make the Z-fold cut 1 piece of 12x12 to measure 5x12. Make sure the pattern runs horizontally on the 12" side. One the 5" side make a little tick mark at 2.5". Score from this mark diagonally to the lower right corner. Score at 4" and 8". It should look like this:

All this needs now are simple embellishments and a sentiment stamped inside. I used a different 12 x 12 sheet for my finished piece. I have alot of Christmas papers like this so I can probably make a bunch of these and just change the embellishments to match the papers. Like using ornaments or wreaths. This would also look cute with spring like papers similar to the video with flower embellishments or maybe leaves for fall. I can't wait to make a bunch more. I'll post them later. Here's the finished card.

If your interested in Deb's video you can watch it: HEREGuess that's it for now. Hope you give this a try and I hope my directions weren't too confusing. Til later.......................HAPPY CARDING!!!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

OK how many of you are "MY LITTLE PONY" fans????? ANYONE??? HELLO????I confess I'm NOT..LOL but my Granddaughter IS. Everything pony...and now they have Equestrian Girls. Oh boy! The subject of My Little Pony comes up periodically at my card group so everyone knows the addiction my granddaughter has to these things so when one of the ladies was out and about she came across My Little Pony Designer Paper. She bought me 5 sheets of this and said she thought my granddaughter would love to make something out of it. And I'm sure she will as soon as I decide to give it to her. I think I'm going to wait til after her birthday tho because I want to make her a "Pony" card for her birthday in late May since she is having an Equestrian Girl (part of the My Little Pony group) party and this card would be perfect to go with her gift. Actually I had to stop this post and was just informed that she wants to make her invites soooo...I guess she gets the pony paper before her birthday! That's ok. So back to my card. I decided to use the accordion fold on this card since it's so easy. I kept it super simple by only using the presents punch from Martha Stewart for embellishing. The card is probably going to be passed around to a bunch of people (homemade ones in our families get alot of Oooo's and Ahhh's) so I didn't want things falling off.

I don't know? Does this count as a C.A.S? Maybe its a C.A.S. Fancy Fold!! LOL!Well I think I'm going to try a few Z-fold cards. I saw a video on Youtube that gave me an idea...You'll have to check back later to find out! Til then.............HAPPY CARDING!!!!

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Hello everyone!! It has been a beautiful weekend but now we are awaiting some thunderstorms. The sky is darkening and there's a gentle breeze. I love spring time thunderstorms. I find them quite soothing. I know I know silly me.Well three of us ladies got together last Friday and we all brought card ideas to the table.Surprisingly June and I both felt the need to add a little Christmas and both of us used the color teal in our cards. We had all gone to Michaels a few weeks ago. Everything seemed to be on sale in the papercrafting section and we both bought and embossing powder by Recollections called Vintage Mint. It has a real pretty pale teal color to it with some larger glitter flecks.

I'm really beginning to love this color for Christmas cards. I think I'll be doing more of them in this color combo.

The card on the left I had used the embossing powder over white pigment ink. I matted it over a brown shimmer paper. These two colors go so well together. The second card I used Tim Holtz distress ink pad in Spruce with clear embossing powder over it. I added some rhinestones for a little pop.

The next two cards were made as an all occasion type card. With Mothers Day coming one of the cards was made into a Mothers Day Card but since I no longer have my mother with me (not even my Mother-in-law) I had no purpose for a Mothers Day card so I just made a general card. Both are adorable.

I suppose we could even used them as Birthday cards. That's what I love about general cards.Well I'm going to go and enjoy the rain...Love Love Love the smell of falling rain and listening to the distant thunder. Till next time................................HAPPY CARDING!!

About Me

Mother of 2 and grandmother of 2. We live where seasons have changes and to keep myself busy during the cold months I tend to work on alot of papercrafts. Cards are my ultimate favorite. I love creating and surfing the web looking for ideas and video's from fellow cardmakers.